Pessimism is a legitimate form of coping

Freddie DeBoer criticizes what he calls the "Covid realist":

For the Covid realist, no amount of pessimism about the virus is deep enough. No amount of adherence to the rules is strict enough. No surrender to the inevitability of more and more restrictions is complete enough. With the Covid realist you learn quickly that the only correct response is to nod along more deeply with every new, more pessimistic thing they say. Every utterance becomes a referendum not only on your apprehension of where we stand relative to the virus but on whether you are willing to accept the harsh, brutal truths of the Covid realist.

Covid realism is a way 

to make yourself into a cruel person, cruel and self-satisfied and righteous. It is a way to trade on other people’s misery to attain some sort of momentary social standing in an exchange which should never have been a contest in the first place. 

DeBoer continues:

Be pessimistic in your assessments when you feel it’s appropriate. But let people feel things. Including optimism. Including investing great hopes in the vaccine. Including planning ahead for better futures....

I get what he's saying. I even agree. Pessimists shouldn't rain on people's parade. And pessimism brings with it the temptation to put on airs and look down at others--to make others feel bad for hoping. That, in turn, erodes hope. And hope is a good thing, not to be easily eroded.

And yet, pessimism is how some people cope with the bad. Not wanting to get one's hopes up--choosing not to hope--is how some of us try to navigate through uncertain times. Pessimism may be the wrong choice, but it is a legitimate one. In some ways, it might not even be a choice.

Don't shame people for being pessimists. DeBoer isn't exactly doing that. He's simply outlining some of the drawbacks of pessimism or the extremes to which pessimism can take us. Pessimists would do well to heed his warning. But it's possible to go too far into the criticisms against pessimism, and I write this blog post as a corrective to the tendency to go too far.